A Night to Remember
by MarieLightning
Summary: After being forced to the prom by Marco, Ellie finds out that the evening isn't turning out so bad as she thought it would


"I'm not going in there."

It was a Friday evening, only a few weeks before the end of school, and the mall was even more crowded than a school corridor after the lunch bell rang. Definitely not how I had planned on spending the end of an exhausting week, but Marco had insisted on dragging me there, saying he only needed to buy one little thing and then we'd be out of there and free to do whatever I wanted to do. He said this small shopping trip would be short and painless. Liar.

"Ellie, don't make me drag you," he said, sending an exasperated look at me as he grabbed my wrist.

"Marco, I'm not even going to the prom!" I cried, wriggling free from his grip only to have Alex take my shoulders and push me toward the dreaded dress shop. Because of course he had needed reinforcement, though why Alex had agreed to it and was now doing this to me, I had no clue. "You both really hate me that much, don't you?"

"Come on El," Marco pleaded, giving me a puppy eyes look. "We only get one prom, you know you'll regret it someday if you don't go."

"Oh yeah, I will," I said sarcastically. "When I'm eighty years old, sitting in a rocking chair with a few kittens around me while I'm knitting, I'll be remembering my senior prom which I ditched and a few tears will roll down my cheeks. Not likely, Marco."

"Nash, we're going in so stop whining," Alex said, pushing me the last few steps that were separating me from Hell.

"I really don't get why you're even helping him on that one," I muttered, sending Alex a glare as she finally let go of my shoulders.

"Because I had nothing better to do," she said with a shrug.

"Are you even going to the prom?" I shot back.

"Yes," she said, looking at a small black dress in which I'd probably have trouble fitting one leg into, let alone my whole body.

I stared at her in shock, my mouth hanging open.

"Alex here has some sense in her head, unlike you," Marco said, pushing me toward a rack of expensive – and pink – looking dresses. "And you are going to the prom. I bought your ticket already."

"Marco!"

"Stop whining, start shopping," he said firmly.

"This shop is filled with pink dresses. I'm not wearing a pink dress," I said, folding my arms on my chest. "I'm not wearing any dresses. Because I am not. Going. To. The. Prom!"

"Yes. You. Are," he and Alex said at the same time.

I raised my arms in the air in defeat with an aggravated sigh. If they were both out to get me, the only way of getting away from this prom of doom was to hide in my room until the school year was over, but that would mean missing the exams and graduation, which was overall not the best of ideas. After an inner debate, I decided that it wouldn't be all that bad if I did go to the prom… besides, it didn't mean I'd have to stay there the whole evening. I would be able to leave once all my friends were dancing and having fun too much fun to notice me sneak out of the room.

When Marco and Alex noticed I seemed to have given in, they left me to my shopping while they looked around by themselves. Alex eventually found a dress and left, not willing to wait as I kept looking around boredly, though only after Marco assured her he wouldn't let me leave until I bought something. After another hour, my eyes fell on a dress that made me freeze for a second. Looking around quickly to make sure Marco wasn't around – I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of victory; if I didn't find anything, he wouldn't force me to buy a random dress, that I knew – I got slightly closer to the dress to examine it properly, lightly running my fingers over the dark purple fabric. It was strapless, pinkless, and practically flawless. It was perfect. Shaking my head, I forced myself to back up and tear my eyes from it. I wasn't going to give in. Or so I thought…

"I saw that!" came an overly excited voice from behind me. "Try it on El."

I turned to face Marco with an innocent look on my face. "They don't have my size, I checked," I lied.

"Then I'll go ask someone if they have one in the back," he said, dead serious.

"You wouldn't," I challenged, scowling at him.

He turned around and headed to the counter but I stopped him before he got there.

"Alright, alright I'll try the stupid dress on," I said, giving in and mentally kicking myself.

He smiled smugly as I took the dress off the rack and let him drag me to the changing room. Mumbling to myself, I slipped off my jeans and shirt before putting the dress on. It fit perfectly. Crap.

"El, I know you're changed, get out of there," Marco said from the other side of the door.

I rolled my eyes and opened the door, folding my arms across my stomach and looking at him sulkily.

"Arms down," he said, forcing me to unfold my arms. "Now turn."

"Do you want me to do a cartwheel with that?" I asked sarcastically.

"You are so buying that dress Ellie," he said with a grin, ignoring my comment.

"I don't have the money," I said, not even taking a look at the price. From the look of it, it was surely more than I could afford… hopefully anyway.

Apparently, fate wasn't on my side. He held out the price tag for my eyes to see and I groaned. The dress was on sale, at a very good price. How could such a great dress be on sale right before a high school prom? It was unrealistic. A real nightmare.

After paying for the dress and leaving the mall, I wasn't in the mood to do anything else. I simply headed back home, despite Marco's pleas to hang out, and tried to think of a way to get out of this prom. I was ready to do anything, but sadly the most realistic idea consisted in burning my dress, and I hadn't spent so much money on it to not wear it at least once.

The few days that were left before the prom went by way too fast for my taste. Before I even knew it, I was being forced into my dress and dragged outside the house into the limo Marco had rented along with Paige, Dylan and Alex. At least the seats were comfortable…

It was only later in the evening that I started mentally kicking myself. Marco had tried as hard as he could to stay with me so that I would at least have a bit of fun, but I could see that he wanted to be doing something other than trying to cheer me up, so I had ended up putting on a smile and had told him to go dance and have some fun, I'd go find him later. I don't know if he really bought it or if he was just waiting for me to tell him that so that he could leave me alone but as soon as the words were out of my mouth he told me he'd be back soon and ran away. So there I was, sitting all by myself – I was almost expecting that song to start playing just for the irony of it – and looking around boredly while everybody else was having fun and dancing. I could have danced I guess, but the DJ seemed to be happy with putting on mostly slow songs, and I didn't feel like going on the dance floor and hugging myself while dancing alone, though that could have been rather funny. At least, the night couldn't very well get any worse.

"Well, wallowing in self pity aren't we?" a sarcastic voice came from behind me.

Okay so I was wrong. It could definitely get worse and it just had. I turned around slowly with a frown on my face to see Jay Hogart standing right in front of me. I couldn't help but stare when I saw that he was wearing a tux (and that he actually looked good in it… I so didn't think that) and a smirk appeared on his face as he sat in the chair next to mine, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"What does it look like?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Looks like you could use some cheering up, so here I am," he said, grinning widely.

"You see, that's the fact that I don't quite get yet," I said, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Can't a guy come to his senior prom?" he said innocently.

"If that guy is you, no," I said.

"Good point," he agreed. "But you know, there are some compensations," he added with a smirk.

I looked around the place, rolling my eyes. I have to admit that, for a guy, the sight wasn't really bad tonight. Lots of low cut dresses, most of them leaving very little to the imagination. I turned to face him, prepared to make another comment but I stopped in my tracks when I noticed what he was looking at. He wasn't looking at the other girls who were dancing as if they wanted nothing more than to be looked over by some pervs, he wasn't even looking at the dance floor where most of the students were. He was looking at _me_. I tried to stare back, raising an eyebrow at him, but when a light smirk curved his lips I instantly looked down and blushed, cursing myself mentally for giving up so easily. What was he doing to me? Moreover, why did it even affect me?

"What about you Red?" he asked suddenly, making me look up.

"What?" I stammered stupidly. What the heck?!

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "What are you doing here? This isn't exactly your scene either is it? Or else you'd probably dancing out there," he said, tilting his head slightly.

"Marco dragged me here," I said a bit resentfully. "After dragging me into a dress shop along with Alex."

He smiled – a real smile, not a smirk – and got back to his feet, coming closer to me and bending down so that his lips were right next to my ear.

"Remind me to thank them later," he whispered before leaving toward the exit.

I sat there, frozen, for I don't know how long. Was he serious or making fun of me? The logical part of my brain was yelling at me for even thinking he could have meant what he had just said, but something else in me told me he did. The tone of his voice had been strangely honest, and the look in his eyes was… something I hadn't seen in a while, and never from him. I couldn't help but wonder what had just happened, and why it was having such an effect on me. My cheeks were warmer than usual, and from that I knew that the blush his words had caused hadn't quite left my cheeks yet. Darn my red hair… But there was something else, a sensation in the pit of my stomach that I hadn't felt in so long… and I remembered perfectly well when it was the last time I had felt it. During a long Saturday detention, when I had found myself on the roof with none other than Sean Cameron, our fingers entwined as we held hands. That day it had sent butterflies flying frantically in my stomach and they hadn't left for days. And now they were back. But it couldn't be… I couldn't be falling for Jay, I hardly ever talked to him. Annoyed with myself, I got back to my feet and headed to a corner of the room, leaning back on the wall and folding my arms over my chest as I watched people dancing happily. I took a few steps forward to try and see where Marco was so that I could tell him I was leaving… obviously, this prom thing hadn't been such a great idea. After a while of looking, I felt a presence behind me but didn't bother turning to look around. It was probably someone passing by or sneaking out of the room. But then two arms found their way around my waist and I froze completely as someone's voice reached my ear, his hot breath colliding with my already warm cheeks.

"You wanna dance Red?"

Without pulling away – bad move – I turned around to face him, my face inches away from his as his arms were still around my waist. I swallowed hard and nodded weakly, not able to find the words to answer, and knowing that even if I did they probably wouldn't come out very clearly. Smiling, he led me to the dance floor and pulled me slightly closer as a slow song started, and right then and there I made a decision. I gave up on my confusion and decided to enjoy it, not matter how weird or awkward it was. The only thing I knew from that moment is that I was dancing with Jay Hogart and hell was I enjoying it! I caught Marco's confused expression from the corner of my eyes, along with Alex's smug smile, but I ignored them both. And then the most shocking thing of my life (okay, of the month more like) happened.

Jay took my chin between his fingers, forcing me to look up as I was previously looking anywhere but at him, knowing there weren't much chance of me staying standing for long if I did. My eyes met his in a way that reminded me of a cheesy romance movie but I was too dazzled to make any comments. The effect he had on me was clearly strong – and frankly ridiculous. Then, just as I was willing myself to look away, his face came even closer to mine and our lips met. I unconsciously clung to his shoulders, my legs failing me as my knees weakened and he tightened his hold of my waist, kissing me gently in a way I had never figured a guy like him could kiss. Completely clueless as to what to do or how to react, I did the obvious. I kissed him back. I didn't care if later he'd go back to the way he was acting toward me before – ignoring my very existence. I didn't care if all my friends would tell me to forget about it, that it was the worst idea that had ever crossed my mind. I didn't care how weird it was that I was falling for him so quickly. All I cared about at the moment was that it was the best frigging kiss I had ever received. The rest was tomorrow's problem.


End file.
